To raise money for her six days of inaugural events, Dixon - like most elected officials - had formed the type of nonprofit fund that is permitted under IRS rules to take part in political activity. It attracted nearly $730,000.
It was no secret at the Baltimore City Foundation that the bulk of the $20,000 Whiting-Turner donation also was being spent on inaugural events.
In seven written requests to withdraw a total of $15,439 from the account over 15 days, Portia Harris, then the city's acting director of recreation and parks, informed the foundation that each expense, including the skating rink, was "part of Mayor Dixon's Inaugural Week Festivities."
In an interview, Ivey acknowledged that he had signed off on the expenditures, saying that he believed it was the city's responsibility to make sure that money from the foundation account was spent appropriately.
"How could it be mine?" he asked.
In response to questions from The Sun, the mayor's spokesman, Scott Peterson, initially said the $20,000 donation from Whiting-Turner had been solicited by the Office of Partnerships in the Department of Recreation and Parks. Later, Peterson said he had "no idea" whether a city employee asked the contractor for the money. No written documentation existed to show how the funds were raised or how they were to be spent, according to the mayor's office. The Recreation and Parks Department declined to comment.
City law requires that such fundraising efforts be cleared through the ethics board, because Whiting- Turner sought to do business with the department that year. The board could produce no records of employees having filed for such a review in this case.
The only apparent advantage of donating to the Baltimore City Foundation versus the inaugural fund is that contributions to the foundation are tax-deductible.
Whiting-Turner President and CEO Willard Hackerman, a founding member of the Baltimore City Foundation board of directors, declined to be interviewed for this article. A company spokesman declined to discuss the purpose of the contribution or comment on how the money was spent.
Donald F. Norris, a professor and chairman of the Department of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said it "appeared that the foundation either was used ... for a political contribution or the foundation itself used funds intended for recreational programs to support the mayor's inauguration."
